NEWS: NARC. #109 out now!

The August issue of NARC. magazine is available now from over 200 outlets across the North East

By Claire Dupree
on Wednesday, July 29th, 2015

This month our cover star is Maximo Park’s Paul Smith, who chats with Emily Ingram about going it alone on his latest solo album and the influence of Northern music.

News-wise we feature top live gigs from Bares, Schultz, Former Cell Mates, Kubichek!, Billie Marten and many more, plus festival previews including Hardwick Live, Home Gathering, Chase Park and Make A Scene and releases from Hyde & Beast and Davey Bandman.

The Culture section is chock full of exceptional events including Whitley Bay Film Festival; Your Aunt Fanny’s pre-Edinburgh show; Simon Donald’s Them Off The Viz performance; superb spoken-word from No Sleep ‘Til Scotland; the wondrous Gallery of Wonder on Tour; plus a tattoo art exhibition, Newcastle Alternative comedy shows, a street theatre festival, Billingham International Folklore Festival of World Dance, a brand new app from Tyne & Wear Museums, a peepshow at The Cluny, new installation at Tyneside Cinema’s Gallery and much much more!

August’s musical delights are many and varied: Claire Dupree finds Kingsley Chapman still rallying and raging…albeit with a little more finesse; Mark Corcoran-Lettice discusses songwriting and collaborations with former Bad Seed Mick Harvey; Tom Hollingworth chats with Newcastle trio Ilser about their new single; Mark Corcoran-Lettice delves into the wondrous mysteries of Trembling Bells’ new album; Claire Dupree discovers the dark side of the noisy psychedelic Teesside trio The Golden Age of Nothing; Newcastle five-piece Baker Island talk to Eugenie Johnson about the long gestation of their debut album and their laid-back approach to song structure; Joe Fowler talks to Youngblood Brass Band about the evolution of the New Orleans brass music scene; Katy Blackwood gets to know Elephant Memoirs, their DIY designs and their long-awaited debut EP; Martin Sharman eschews the mainstream and gets down and dirty with sadly recently defunct ‘Boro rap rockers Bi:Lingual; Linsey Teggert speaks to Casey Crescenzo of The Dear Hunter and discovers a complex band worthy of your emotional investment and Martin Sharman talks to indie rockers Calf about how loving wood can help make beautiful music. We also find out what is setting Newcastle label Mono apart from its peers, Eugenie Johnson finds out more about one of Tyneside’s hidden treasures, Tynemouth Surf Café and Lindisfarne Festival main-man Conleth Maenpaa lets us peek at his record collection in Mixtape.